Nagahide

By Moe Lane

Believe it or not, just about everyone agrees that one
of the tragedies of the Purity Crusade was the
destruction of the dragons. Of course, just why it
was a tragedy varies from entity to entity: some miss
the dragons on their own merits... while others simply
regret that such a unparalleled resource for body
armor was allowed to go extinct. The ethereals known
as 'nagas' are firmly in the latter camp, if only
because if dragons were still around there's a chance
that nobody would be coming after them with flensing
knives.

Nagahide is pretty much what its name implies: the
treated and cured skin of a naga. It's light,
flexible and makes very, very good armor (a full body
suit is at -6 to hit, Protection 6): it gives an
additional +3 Protection to all flame based attacks.
This is not quite as good as dragonskin armor
(somebody wearing one of those could be killed -
eventually - but you'd need to schedule a day or two
in order to do the job), but nagas are around and
dragons aren't. Best of all, nagahide is so flexible
and light that you can make it look like anything
else: regular armor types made out of nagahide add 2
to their Modifier to hit and 3 to their Protection,
with the additional +3 to flame attacks.

The problems with nagahide mostly involve getting
some. Unlike (some) dragons, nagas do not shed their
skins, which means that harvesting the hide will kill
the naga. They naturally object to this.
Furthermore, while nagahide can be acquired on either
the corporeal or ethereal plane, doing the latter
requires the expenditure of 5 Essence to 'fix' the
hide so that it can be used on the other two planes.
If the hide is not so fixed within a 'week' of
acquisition, it melts away when brought to Earth or
Heaven/Hell. Nagahide acquired on the corporeal plane
does not require Essence 'fixing'... but it also gives
no special protection anywhere else. Needless to say,
no entity wearing nagahide can ever hope to get a good
(read: 'not frothing at the mouth enraged') reaction
from a Hindu ethereal, period. Even the ones who
aren't all that nice themselves consider it a killing
insult.

However, the most serious problem with nagahide is
frankly political. Nagas are a recognized part of the
Hindu pantheon, and Heaven is somewhat leery of
breaking the tacit truce that exists between the two
groups. As a result, Nagahide is one of those items
that Marc won't allow to be Traded in Heaven (and his
agents are forbidden to deal in it on Earth), and no
reputable Servitor of Creation or Protection will even
think of working with the stuff. Hell could itself
care less, but they (mostly) recognize that it is hard
to win powerful neutrals to your side when you
regularly parade around in their flayed skins.
Besides, Servitors of the Media usually don't have the
proper skill set for armoring and Servitors of
Technology consider the entire idea to be so five
centuries ago. Nagahide is thus a bit rare.

Still, suits of the stuff get made: there are
apparently entities willing to do the job if given the
raw materials, and certainly the Hindu domain gets hit
every so often. Harvesting raids are usually blamed
on the Tsayadim; they certainly aren't shy of wearing
nagahide, and there's never been any hard-and-fast
proof that other groups use them as a cover. Of
course, the hides that show up in Hell are suggestive
that they condone some deniable harvesting. It's easy
to believe that the Tsayadim might have some discreet
connection with Heaven; the thought that they might
consider Hell less objectionable than the ethereals
that they still hunt is a much more serious
allegation, or even smear...